Messenger Bag or Panniers

The question of the week...to go with a messenger bag or panniers for bike commuting? I've been using a messenger bag for a few weeks now, and although it is very cool looking, I am wondering about the long term practicality of it. It is quick and easy to stuff the normal commuting items like a change of clothes and lunch, throw it over my shoulder and go. However, it can get old always having the bag on your back. Panniers would allow me to let the bike carry the bags and get the load of my back. With panniers, though, the bike has to be outfitted with a front or rear rack to accommodate them. This probably wouldn't be a big deal since I usually only commute with one of two bikes. One already has a rear rack, and the other one can easily be fitted with one. There is the added time of removing the pannier, but that shouldn't be a big deal, either.
For simply commuting I don't think it makes much difference which way to go. I'm thinking more long term...things like going out for longer rides and wanting to bring along a few things. This would get rather uncomfortable with a bag on my back. I'm also daydreaming about some short touring adventures, hopefully with the family. This would obviously favor panniers over a bag.
As I write this, the panniers seem more and more like the right thing for me. Now I just need to figure out a way to unload my messenger bag and score a pair of nice panniers.

Slow Ride

On New Year's Day I went for a bike ride...all of probably 1 mile, and it was great. What made it great was not how far I rode, but who I rode with. My whole family went riding at a nearby lake. I was on an old Schwinn 5 speed, my wife on her old Trek mountain bike, my 8 year old daughter on her first "real" 2 wheeler, and my 6 year old son on the hand-me-down 2 wheeler with training wheels. We just rode the short distance by the lake on a relatively flat paved trail, stopping at about 1/4 mile to feed some ducks. Then we proceeded back and stopped at another spot to feed more ducks. We then rode about another 1/4 mile to another area to again feed the ducks and have a little snack for ourselves. Obviously, the riding of bikes was not the main objective of this little outing, spending time with the family was. It was nice getting outdoors on a fairly mild day and actually doing something together.
Part of me cannot wait until the kids are old enough to really go on bike rides with me. Yet, I also don't want them growing up too fast. For as much as I love riding, we don't seem to be able to all get out and ride together as I wish we did. Maybe investing in a tag-along bike or tandem would make it easier? We have a trailer, but the kids have just about outgrown that. Anyway, even these little riding adventures beat sitting around the house watching TV or listening to the kids argue over everything. Now I just need to make sure we do them more often.

The Good and Bad for Bicycle Parking

Just saw two stories on Carectomy about bicycle parking, one good and one bad. First, the good. At the San Fransisco baseball stadium, Giants' AT&T Park, the S.F. Bicycle Coalition helps to offer valet parking for bikes at events there. People who rides their bikes to the park don't have to worry about finding a place to lock up their bikes. There is covered storage for about 200 bikes available.
Now for the bad. The New York Times recently moved their office to a new building. This new building was promoted to be green and sustainable. The designers seemed to have left out one relatively small, but important, aspect - bike parking. Several Times employees commute by bike, and at their old building they had good parking. At the new office, they have none. For a while, a friendly security guard let one worker bring in his bike through a freight elevator. But, that suddenly stopped. Out of frustration, some employees began locking their bikes to parts of the building outside. Eventually, the Times created a small room to store bikes for employees, but seems to be inadequate for number of commuters, and requires a permit.
To me, this is just another example of big businesses touting that they are green or environmentally friendly or sustainable, but overlook some of the most simplest and obvious things we can do make a real difference.

Nature Bats Last

"Nature bats last" - a quote from Joel Staunton of Polyface Farms.
How true this is when we consider the forces of nature, especially during this time of wildfires throughout southern California. Whether it be floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, droughts or wildfires, these Mother Nature wake-up calls reaffirm the fact that humans cannot completely control the cycles of our natural world.
Me and my family were in close proximity to the fires in San Diego county, but thankfully not directly in harms way. It is always very disheartening to see anyone's home and property destroyed. During this fire it happened over and over, almost to the point where it became mind-dumbing to see it on TV.
We try our best to make comfortable living spaces for ourselves. Our houses protest us from the elements and provide a home for our family, pets, and belongings. Over the years our homes have continued to encroach on the wilderness. Doing so provides cheaper land for building houses and lets us live closer to nature. Of course, this comes at a cost. In doing so, we place ourselves closer to the potential destructive forces of nature.
In and of itself, wildfires are not a bad thing. It is just one of natures many cleansing cycles. The fire burns away the old overgrowth, provides natural fertilizer, and even allows some seeds to germinate. The problem for humans is that we like to live near this wilderness, so we become more vulnerable to its forces. We must accept that we can try to protect ourselves from these forces, but ultimately we do not bat last.

Little Things - Let Air do its Job

Another quick "Little Things" note. When you have things that need to dry, let the air do its job and dry them for you. When you wash your hair, let the air dry it instead of running a hair dryer. When you wash dishes, just leave them in the rack to let the air dry them. If you use a dishwasher, stop it before the dry cycle starts and just open the door. When you wash clothes, hang them outside on the line when possible. If you are concerned about them being too stiff from drying on the line, you can run them in the dryer for just a couple of minutes to soften them up. Besides using much less energy than drying clothes in a dryer, your clothes should last longer too. You don't have the dryer wearing out your clothes while they get tumbled around.
Anything that can be dried by air, let it. It's free after all.

You Can Take it With You

There is an interesting experiment going on at Public Radio's Marketplace. Their program host Tess Vigeland has taken upon the challenge of carrying around her personal trash for two (2) weeks. Everything that she would normally throw away now goes into a black trash bag that she carries around with her nearly everywhere. I say everywhere because there are limits, such as not taking the bag into restaurants or stores. But, she carries her bag from home to the office and back home every day. There is some thought provoking reading on her blog. It causes me to pause and think about just how easy we have it. We simply throw our garbage into the big trash container outside and once a week the garbage is hauled away and we never have to think about it again. It just magically disappears. The sad truth is, however, that it does not disappear. It ends up in landfills that are nearing their capacity. The waste in landfills do not decompose like many of us would think. It mostly putrefies and seeps into the ground, often contaminating underground water. Waste in the landfills also give off methane gas, since the matter breaks down in anaerobic conditions. What does not end up in landfills can get washed downstream and pollute rivers, lakes, and our oceans.
Tess does have a bit of an advantage. She has a compost pile in her backyard, unlike most people. She is able to place most food items in it. The one exception is no animal by-products (meat scraps, bones, etc), so when she inadvertently bought a whole chicken from the market, she forgot that she would be carrying it around with her for the next week or so.
If everyone had to take on this challenge it would really get us thinking about the amount of stuff we consume and just toss away. Well, at least I hope it would.

Car Free in SoCal

Can anyone live car free in Southern California? Apparently so. A family in Santa Ana has. Here is an article on their transformation from car poor to car free. They now bike just about everywhere. They utilize public transit also, and once in a while rent a car. They also have a blog about their car free journey. I believe that this type of shift in thinking is what will make our world a better place for everyone, not the thinking that everyone deserves a car and only adding more roads will cure our traffic problems. Because we know it won't.